For years, pundits have predicted the coming of the paperless office; an office environment in which there is no longer a need for expensive, messy, and disorganized paper files and records. This utopian ideal has never materialized. Instead, businesses may be even more reliant on paper files and archives than in the past. This is particularly true in businesses which have multiple offices and which generate a large number of original documents such as signed contracts, compliance documents, or the like. In a business that generates a number of contracts, for example, it can be quite difficult to file and store the original document (or a facsimile thereof) in a manner allowing it to be readily located and retrieved days, if not years, later.
A typical records management system may consist of a paper filing system which stores each document in a logical manner, e.g., contracts may be filed by date, by contracting party, or by subject matter. The paper filing system may be supplemented with one or more databases which are used to provide further information about each document and to allow electronic searching for information entered in the database.
Such approaches, however, do not allow businesses to efficiently and accurately store, and subsequently retrieve and identify, all relevant documents. Existing systems are particularly unsuited for use in businesses having multiple offices or locations which desire to store and retrieve documents from each location. Often, each location of a business implements its own records management system. Each location often uses its own data storage and retrieval conventions, making it difficult (if not impossible) to share document information between locations.
It would be desirable to provide a system and method which may be utilized to store, catalog, and retrieve documents from multiple locations of a business. It would further be desirable to provide a system and method which allows integration with existing document management databases and document generation and management systems. It would further be desirable to provide a system and method which allows the storage, retrieval and control of document images along with paper copies of documents.